Friday, November 10, 2017

THE DONGGONGON TAMU

The Donggongon Tamu could be the best tamu this part of Sabah.

The Tamu is held every week for two days and two hours. It starts from 4 o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday through Thursday to Friday.

The best time to do your shopping for fresh vegetables, local fruits, fresh water fish, fresh chicken and local native condiments is on Thursday.

Ginger
Fresh vegetables of all kinds are these for you to choose. Large tubers such as sweet potatoes and yams are available aplenty. Most of these are from Tambunan. The fat gingers are from there, too. Pineapples, mostly from Babagon, are there waiting for your taste buds. Babagon pineapples are the sweetest in Sabah! You will never regret buying one or two. Never mind the price. Try one!


Go early on Thursday in order to get a parking space more easily. If not, you will have to go round Donggongon several times. You may get a space if you are lucky enough. Avoid double-parking and never triple-park. You may get fined if there is a policeman on duty. This is money you can better use to pay for your shopping.
Soursops

If you go on Wednesday, you have limited time before it gets dark. And if you go on Friday, the best items will have already gone. You may get some bargains but the vegetables that are left would be somewhat withered and the fruits are the "leftovers" of other tamu goers. So, go on Thursday if you don't want to get disappointed.

If you are interested, and you are from outside Penampang, bring your videocam to record the beating of the 'brass' gongs and the bambo gongs. But if you are late, the players would already have gone before you come.

By the way, there are also dry foodstuff on sale at the Donggongon Tamu such as salted fish, dried prawns and anchovies. Anyway, you may want to avoid these if you have a medical conditions that do not allow you consuming any of these foodstuffs.

There are also flowers, ferns and decorative plants on sale at the Tamu. You may be fortunate enough to find something you have been looking for a long time for your house. So, go!

Local herbalists are not to be outdone. I know one of them, a Mr. Joimis from Sugud. He has a lot of items for sale from Thursday to Friday. He also sells tree barks called "osok" used to convert the coconut tree sap into an alcoholic drink. You may know this as "toddy" or "bahar"which is "baa" in Kadazan. I have not seen any toddy on sale there. Perhaps, the Penampang District Council does not allow its sale.

The only thing that may irritate you is the way vehicles are parked. These are parked haphazardly. But don't allow this to disturb you. This is the way many motorists park during tamu time.

Enjoy your "tamuing"! And may you get the best items.


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Changing Landscape, Changing Values


Penampang had been the source of hope of many since the days the Mill Hill priests started education in this place. Penampang appears to have lost much of that aura of hope as the years passed amidst blunders of some of its leaders apart from the negative consequences that come with progress.

This should not be surprising. Cain, who murdered Abel, founded the first city. Good and bad happen in cities but more of the bad things, it is said. It is up to good people to make the vital difference in places of darkness.

Progress has come to Penampang although at a slow pace. Penampang was a farming community where the people planted rice in their small fields and some vegetables in their backyards. The people who live here are Kadazans or Sino-Kadazans. The Chinese lived and did business in their wooden shop lots in three blocks of buildings at Donggongon.

St. Michael's School Penampang
In the late 1880s, only two schools were available, St. Theresa at Inobong and St. Michael's Penampang. The people were not interested in education. But in 1910, the priests had no choice but to force their children to study for at least three years.

The officials of the British North Borneo Chartered Company were too busy making money for the shareholders to take any interest in the education of the local population. This was so in Penampang and in so many other places in then North Borneo.

When the schools were reopened after the Japanese occupation, boys from as far away as Tambunan, Papar and Kuala Penyu came to Penampang to study. These educated boys became the catalyst in the progress of their own villages in later years.

The white priests had all gone, having already passed on or gone back to their own country to receive new transfer orders. Local priests had taken over their duties. The white priests taught in Mission Schools. Local priests don't! Trained teachers of various racial and religious backgrounds had taken over the teaching responsibilities including in Mission Schools. Malay is now the medium of instruction.

Changing Demography
The Penampang populace is now a mixture of various races. There is also a large number of mobile immigrant population many of whom had obtained Malaysian citizenship. The Kadazan and Chinese are slowly being squeezed into tight corners. Many Kadazans seem oblivious to the predicament of their people.

Some Chinese including those who came from other places in Malaysia had purchased land from Kadazan landowners. Part of the problem was that some Kadazans are too ready to sell off the "pusaka" land they inherited from their parents or grandparents.

Changing Conviction
The Penampang Kadazans are divided in their political ideology, supporting different leaders and parties. They no longer present a united front since there is no single leader who has the charisma to unite them under one political grouping. The days of the Late Peter Mojuntin had long been gone.

Penampang was staunchly Catholic in the past. It is still so to a great extent. But the style of Church leadership has changed, perhaps due to stresses of life and pressures from various quarters. It seems that Penampang had lost much of its moral leadership based on the conviction of the Catholics staying there. If this is true, what were the reasons?

Penampang needs to maintain its characteristic as a Christian community. It would be very sad indeed if it were to cease being so.

Changing Values
Not long ago - I think it was in 2016 - the police raided an illegal casino at Bundusan. A few years before this, a number of saloons at Penampang Baru township (not Donggongon) were raided by police for allegedly engaging in immoral activities. It has been suggested that many of those involved moved to the outskirts of the city after the K.K. City authorities carried out operations to flush out their activities within the city.

At present, it is rumoured that there are many illegal gambling outlets at Donggongon Town. Is this true? If so, one may ask what is happening to Penampang. Whether this is true or not, there must be something that right thinking people, particularly Christians, can do to prevent immoral activities and the like from ever gaining footholds in Penampang.

Let us make Penampang a place all of us can be proud of, safe for families, safe for everyone.